Tyler The Creator – Goblin

Amidst hype and controversy,the much anticipated release of Goblin has been bestowed upon the world like the latest hipster accessory or more simply, a bad joke, or a good-bad joke. Or an exploration into the…Shit, I took the bait. The bait, of course, being the ridiculous dissection and speculation of something that’s just plain shitty so it looks like you “get it” – or more importantly, so it doesn’t look like you’re one of the people who “doesn’t get it”. We take the bait because the most important thing in the world is to be cool, not ever look stupid, and always fit in. But there’s nothing to “get” here, Goblin is just bad. And homophobic. And misogynistic. And I know why Goblin isn’t anything more.

San Francisco is a world-class city that draws people from all over the globe to come and partake in all its goodness and one of my favorite parts is the skate culture that lives and breathes here. Most folks in San Francisco may not know it, but there are still teenage skate kids who come from all over the world, with nothing more than a backpack, a couple decks and a video camera to skate, and breathe, and not do a whole lot more. I used to live with one of these skate kids – a guy from Boston that my friends and I called “BoSox Derek”. BoSox Derek was 19, he moved to San Francisco with his skateboard, a bag full of skate hardware and some Thrasher mags. He kept to himself at first; but quickly got a job in the skate department at the local sporting goods store, and would come back from what we assumed was a skate session, sweaty as fuck, with a 40 oz of something terrible and a fistful of confidence. These were the times that I really got to know BoSox Derek. And what I learned was that he was basically a shitty, immature 19-year-old kid who called everyone and everything a “faggot” and really had no further agenda than skating, drinking, and causing trouble. Which, whatever, just do your dishes.

After spending some time listening to Goblin, reading and watching several interviews, and checking out what Tyler, The Creator has had to say in public forums, I realized something; BoSox Derek and Tyler, The Creator are exactly the same. Only Tyler has a mic and a podium. Dangerous, maybe. But if we take the hype down from an 11 to a 2, and stop calling him “the next…” whatever, we might realize he’s just a grimy skate kid with really, only one and a half songs.

Goblin broods like a frustrated teenager trying to figure the world out. In fact, Tyler spends the nearly seven minutes of track one exposing his inner-monologue, venting about his confusions, internal paradoxes and stuff that pisses him off. No beats, rhymes or timing to speak of. Ok.

Soon thereafter you start to realize how each track is more of a recorded therapy session of someone who’s trying to figure out his place in the world; but forces everything and tries too hard, because he knows he’s being recorded.

Thats fine, but maybe poetry is more your thing. Because Tyler’s delivery does not display any sort of undeniable talent, and the beats are uninspiring, in fact, Goblin really only has two different beats: “Angry/Spooky” and “Angry/Sensitive”. And surprise surprise, the songs with the “Angry/Sensitive” music and beats are about girls. With the only exception possibly being a song aptly titled “Bitch Suck Dick”. You make the call. No, actually I will; Tyler, The Creator is a shitty, immature, 19-year-old skate kid only talking about what he knows.

Goblin is not trying to explore the Id, expose issues or do anything meta or whatever; and any critic who desperately tries to find meaning so as not to be exposed as someone who “doesn’t get it”, is doing just that. Goblin is the creation of an immature kid, who showed us that there may be potential, but right now, all he cares about is skating, drinking and causing trouble.

Why does everyone ( including Tyler himself) call that grown ass man a kid. He’s 20. He’s an adult. There use to be a time when people wanted to grow up. Also, I get where everyone is comming from as it concerns Odd Future. I’m a black female and hate the way they perpetuate steroetypes of black women being fat and ugly. However, I must say that Odd Future makes good art. They are the most refreshing thing to come out of music in the last 10 maybe even 15 years. Theirvisuals, production are perfect. They’re even good rappers, especially the one they call Earl Sweatshirt. And the fact that all of this is master minded by a black kid who grew up in a single parent house hold eating free luch is amazing. Somehow his art has managed to transcend racial lines. A black kid who raps about and does crazy white boy shit who would have thunk.

I agree, Tyler does seem like an immature douchebag.
Of course, I think the same of Kurt Kobain…

I think they’ve created a great brand image.
Their music sounds like it was written by a misogynistic 12 year old. It doesn’t speak to me, but it does speak to other immature boys and people too dumb to see past the brand.

The only people I know who like Odd Future are four white guys (and one asian dude) who think black means gangsta rap. It’s fucking embarrassing.

Oh my God as an actual Black person and not some White hipster teen…Tyler is a damn joke and an embarrassment. We need to stop celebrating troubled Black young men who make it big as rappers. There are better paths. Just because rap makes you rich and famous dose not mean it should be an aspiration for so many young Black kids it is a shallow temporary delusion of success. He doesn’t even want to talk about being Black or acknowledge it. He ‘hates race’ because it reminds him he dose not belong in the fickle hipster world he is in. This proves that White own rap. He is a White boy wannabe. He is no Pharrell though he probably tries. I wish Kanye would bust him with a diss track.